Speaking of Dub (the real kind), just over one year ago the music world lost one of its
pioneers in the realm of dub and roots. Vivian "
Yabby You" Jackson produced some of the most hard driving reggae ever released. RIP.
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posted by Jibuzaemon
on Jan 21, 2012 -
9 comments
Chances are that sometime, somewhere, out of the corner of one ear, at least, you've heard the iconic (yet all-but-forgotten) "Willie and the Hand Jive". Set to a Bo Diddley beat, it was an infectious little number that made quite a splash back in its day. Here's a fun
live version of the bouncy tune, complete with the three largest dancing girls you're ever likely to see, and here's the
original 1958 recording. The composer of the tune, the son of Greek immigrants who decided that the world of black music was where he wanted to be, was one
Johnny Otis, who has just
died at the grand old age of 90. Shortly after its release, "Willie and the Hand Jive" was covered by early rock icons like
Bo Diddley and, across the pond in England,
Cliff Richard. But apart from his most famous tune, Johnny did a LOT of recording and performing throughout his lengthy career, so there's...
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posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jan 19, 2012 -
42 comments
The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government.
- Justice Anthony Kennedy
John Geddes Lawrence, the defendant in
the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that declared sodomy laws unconstitutional across the country, died on Nov. 20, according to
an obituary posted by R.S. Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas. He was 68.
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posted by rtha
on Dec 28, 2011 -
33 comments
Between February 1989 and May 1990, there were three significant deaths in the Sesame Street world. The first was
Joe Raposo, a
significant musician for Sesame Street and Electric Company. The last was
Jim Henson,
mourned by Big Bird,
remembered by Frank Oz, and
celebrated in
song by
many (from the
St. John's Memorial,
detailed here). The second person to die in this time period was
Northern Calloway,
Sesame Street's David. Unlike
Joe and
Jim, there were no
television tribute to Northern's life and career on
Sesame Street or
Broadway. Instead, David,
once a young, cool, urban guy, who was studying to be a lawyer while working at Mr. Hooper's storeand the initial romantic interest of Maria,
left the show through a letter, read by Gordon. The story behind David is told below the fold.
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posted by filthy light thief
on Dec 12, 2011 -
25 comments
"Almost everything I do is based on other texts anyway. Without plagiarism, there would be no literature. I'm a rewrite man." The poet Christoper Logue has died, aged 85. Logue had a varied career, at various points serving in the British Army (and being arrested for espionage after a drunken threat to sell secrets), writing pornography under the
nom de plume Count Palmiro de Vicarion, recording
George Martin-produced, "
heroically daft" jazz recitals of the poems of Pablo Neruda (
YT) and regularly contributing to the British satirical magazine
Private Eye, where he edited
Pseuds' Corner, while finding the time to be arrested again, for civil disobedience as part of Bertrand Russell's
Committee of 100.
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posted by running order squabble fest
on Dec 4, 2011 -
14 comments
Leka I Zogu
died November 30, 2011 at the age of 72. When he was less than 48 hours old, Mussolini's troops invaded Albania and drove out his father, King Zog I of Albania, and the rest of the royal family. He spent the rest of his life fleeing invading armies, stockpiling weaponry, trading commodities, attempting coups, returning to Albania (three times), and eventually settling into a quiet life in the very country where he refused to relenquish his claims to the throne.
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posted by Eyebrows McGee
on Dec 2, 2011 -
39 comments
Zdeněk Miler, the animator of the beloved Krtek ("Little Mole") animations died today. Conceived in 1954 after stumbling on a mole's burrow on his evening walk, Krtek appeared in about fifty films all drawn by Miler. The first Krtek film ("
How Krtek Got His Pants"), originally an educational video about the manufacture of linen, won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1957. The Krtek films have been aired in about eighty countries. Miler's young daughters did the uber-cute vocalizations for Krtek, and were the films' test audience as Miler tweaked the films per their suggestions. Here are some perennial favorites:
Krtek and the Radio,
Krtek and the Green Star,
Krtek at Christmas,
Krtek and the Robot.
Miler, like most film buffs, was surprised that Krtek had remained largely unknown in the United States.
"Pretty much the whole world knows Krtek," Mr. Miler said. "America, which is usually first in everything, is last in this. I always look at American history," he said, "and it is a very hard one. People came. They conquered a continent. They suffered hardships, and that hardship is reflected in its movies. I look at children there and think what they are watching is a reflection of that hardness. If you look at America, it is epic. Whereas here, it is more poetic. I feel here there is more lyricism."
posted by Atrahasis
on Nov 30, 2011 -
23 comments
Growing up, she was a beloved celebrity in her home country. Thousands of girls were named after her. So was a bestselling
perfume. But Josef Stalin's "Little Sparrow," his only daughter, (born Svetlana Stalina) defected to the United States in 1967. Upon arriving in New York, she promptly held a
press conference that surprised the world, denouncing her father's regime.
Svetlana became a naturalized US citizen, moved to Taliesin West, married an American, changed her name to Lana Peters, then returned to the Soviet Union in 1984,
declaring that she had not been free "for one single day" in the U.S., only to once
again return to America in 1986. She lived out her remaining days in a
small town in Wisconsin. Mrs. Peters
passed away from
colon cancer on November 22nd, at the age of 85. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 28, 2011 -
39 comments
American biologist Lynn Margulis has died. Prolific and determined, Margulis was best known for her development of
Endosymbiotic Theory, the now widely-accepted idea that complex cells began as a combination of simpler, prokaryotic ones, and the
Gaia Hypothesis, which posited the Earth as a type of living organism. Some of her later ideas, including the claim that
HIV is not the cause of AIDS or that caterpillers and butterflies were once separate organisms, received less support, but Endosymbiotic Theory, in the words of Richard Dawkins, remains "one of the great achievements of twentieth-century evolutionary biology."
posted by Tubalcain
on Nov 23, 2011 -
32 comments
According to breaking
news,
Dennis Ritchie, inventor of the C programming language, co-author with Brian Kernigham of the famous
book on it, and creator with Ken Thompson of the Unix operating system, has died.
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posted by grimjeer
on Oct 12, 2011 -
242 comments
Mansoor 'Tiger' Ali Khan, erstwhile Indian cricket captain,
has died. His legacy evokes a previous era in Indian history: a last-generation Royal blinded in one eye as a young man, he captained the Oxford then the Indian teams (
his father had played for Oxford and England before captaining India), and married movie actress
Sharmila Tagore with whom he had children who went on to become movie stars themselves.
Some memories of a man known for his cricketing skill, style and charisma.
posted by the mad poster!
on Sep 22, 2011 -
20 comments
Somewhere along the line, you might've heard one of the biggest hits to ever come out of the world of jazz: it was a song originally made famous by Les McCann and Eddie Harris back in 1969, called
Compared To What. If you were in the right place at the right time, you might've even caught them doing it
live. Or, if you were born a little too late for all that, you might've heard the song performed by
John Legend and the Roots. Well, the man who wrote the song,
Gene McDaniels, has just
left us at age 76. RIP Gene McDaniels.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Aug 2, 2011 -
25 comments
"I knew that by assembling seven different people and forcing them to live together, the show would have great philosophical implications". Television genius
Sherwood Schwartz,
dies at 94.
posted by mazola
on Jul 12, 2011 -
81 comments
